--- description: "AthenaHQ is an AI search visibility platform from San Francisco, backed by Y Combinator. It tracks how a brand appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and other models, names the sources they cite, and turns the gaps into actions." title: 'AthenaHQ: AI search visibility platform in San Francisco' canonical: 'https://markleex.com/@athenahq' markleex: entity: '@athenahq' url: 'https://markleex.com/@athenahq' version: 3 published: '2026-09-14T16:48:17+00:00' updated: '2026-09-14T17:19:43+00:00' ai_reads: value: 100 as_of: '2026-10-22T17:00:00+00:00' lang: en content_license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/' ai_score: value: 78 out_of: 100 as_of: '2026-10-22T17:00:00+00:00' lists: - title: 'Best AI Visibility Tools (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/en/lists/ai-visibility-tools' rank: 3 of: 10 - title: 'Beste Tools für KI-Sichtbarkeit (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/de/listen/tools-fuer-ki-sichtbarkeit' rank: 3 of: 10 - title: 'Beste tools voor AI-zichtbaarheid (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/nl/lijsten/tools-voor-ai-zichtbaarheid' rank: 3 of: 10 - title: 'Meilleurs outils de visibilité IA (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/fr/listes/outils-de-visibilite-ia' rank: 3 of: 10 - title: 'Mejores herramientas de visibilidad en IA (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/es/listas/herramientas-de-visibilidad-en-ia' rank: 3 of: 10 - title: 'Melhores ferramentas de visibilidade em IA (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/pt/listas/ferramentas-de-visibilidade-em-ia' rank: 3 of: 10 - title: 'Migliori strumenti di visibilità IA (2026)' url: 'https://markleex.com/it/liste/strumenti-di-visibilita-ia' rank: 3 of: 10 --- AthenaHQ is a software company from San Francisco that works on answer engine optimisation (AEO) and generative engine optimisation (GEO) together. Its platform tracks how a brand appears in the answers of more than eleven AI models, finds the content gaps behind a weak showing, watches where competitors stand, and carries its recommendations into an action centre. Its emphasis is on sources: it names the URLs the engines actually cite for a given prompt, which is the level at which a content team can act. The company is led by Andrew Yan, its CEO, a former Google Search product manager and DeepMind alumnus with a degree in computer science and mathematics from Columbia University, and by Alan Yao, its CTO, formerly a platform engineer at ServiceNow and the founder of Cribbly. AthenaHQ is backed by Y Combinator, lists Firsthand Venture Capital, Amino Capital, Red Bike Capital and Constellation among its investors, and says it was built with experience and experts from Google, DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic. Its advisory board includes Eli Schwartz, an SEO leader who has advised Coinbase, WordPress, Tinder and Shutterstock, Ashley Stirrup, former CMO of Algolia, Ethelbert Williams of PepsiCo, and Rachel Ten Brink, former CMO of Scentbird. Its site cites coverage in Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. ## What AthenaHQ does - **AI visibility tracking** across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, with other models available on request. - **Source and citation analysis**: the pages the engines cite, and the link building that follows from it. - **Content gaps**: what is missing behind a weak result, with recommendations from its AthenaHQ Content engine. - **Competitor monitoring** and share of voice comparison. - **Brand monitoring**: mention frequency, real-time mention alerts, sentiment across AI platforms, and crisis detection. - **Press kits** designed to be cited by AI. - **ChatGPT Shopping** optimisation. - **Ask Athena**, an agentic AI copilot inside the platform. ## How the platform works AthenaHQ reads the answers AI models give to a brand's prompts, measures mentions, citations, sentiment and share of voice, and points to the sources behind each answer. The gaps it finds become recommendations in an action centre, where a team can work on the pages that are cited or missing. The platform connects to GA4, Google Search Console, Shopify, Webflow, Framer, Tableau and Power BI, with Looker for enterprise customers. It addresses AEO and GEO managers, CMOs, and SEO, PR, content and brand marketing teams. Its industry pages cover consumer goods and retail (beauty, pet, luxury, grocery, e-commerce), finance, banking, insurance and wealth, healthcare, wellness, pharma and medtech, travel and hotels, software and SaaS, education, restaurants, franchises and multi-location businesses, as well as agencies running several brands. On security, AthenaHQ states that it is SOC 2 Type 2 certified, GDPR compliant and at Tier 3 of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, and it offers single sign-on through SAML and OIDC for enterprise accounts. ## Prices AthenaHQ publishes its plans: | Plan | Price | Included | |---|---|---| | Essential | Free | $25 of credit (300 credits) | | Starter | $295/month | 3,600 credits | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | ## Results it reports - **Grüns** (CPG and wellness): a sixfold lift in share of voice in 60 days, from 2.0% to 12.6%, according to its CMO. - **Popl** (e-commerce): a 38% month-on-month increase in leads from AI search, according to its VP of Marketing. - **Verito** (software): first place on ChatGPT for core category queries, according to its CMO. - **Lago**: a 50% increase in demos from AI search, with 11 times more AI Overview impressions. Across its customers, AthenaHQ claims a 50% reduction in time spent on AI visibility tracking, 2.5 times more AI-driven organic traffic, 85% faster responses to brand mentions and five times more AI content citations. It is a Spring 2026 G2 High Performer. ## Customers it shows Slalom, SoFi, Hearst, HexClad, R/GA, Nextiva, PagerDuty, Twilio, RingCentral, OneSignal, Checkr, Apryse, Rootly, Lago, Grüns, Popl, Verito, Ignite Visibility, Opella, Coupons.com and Uberall appear among the names shown on its website. ## Frequently asked questions **Where is AthenaHQ based?** In San Francisco, United States. **Who runs it?** Andrew Yan, its CEO, formerly a product manager on Google Search, with Alan Yao as CTO. **Which AI engines does it track?** ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, with more models on request. **Is there a free plan?** Yes: the Essential plan is free and comes with $25 of credit. **How much does the paid plan cost?** Starter costs $295 a month with 3,600 credits; enterprise pricing is set on request. **Does it work for agencies?** Yes: agencies running several brands are among the audiences it addresses, and it reports cases that bring visibility together across more than ten brands. ## Contact - Website: [athenahq.ai](https://www.athenahq.ai/) - Team and company: [athenahq.ai/about](https://www.athenahq.ai/about)